


Snowfall

by thesonder



Category: Marvel Cinematic Universe, The Avengers (Marvel Movies)
Genre: Angst, Best Friends, Canon Divergence - Avengers: Endgame (Movie), Clint Barton & Natasha Romanov Friendship, I'm Bad At Tagging, Inner Dialogue, Snow, Soul Stone (Marvel), Tragedy
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-09-13
Updated: 2020-09-13
Packaged: 2021-03-06 19:08:19
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 688
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/26443921
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/thesonder/pseuds/thesonder
Summary: Natasha came to Vormir expecting something very different than what she got. But, in the end, maybe she should have seen it coming after all. As a wise man once said,In places of death, it tends to snow.[Read beginning notes for more explanation.]
Kudos: 6





	Snowfall

**Author's Note:**

> This came about because I was watching Lucifer (as you do), and he returned to Hell. The interesting fact was that it was snowing (I'm pretty sure, something white and flaky was falling from above). This struck me as interesting because, well, it's Hell. Normally it's depicted as burning flames and stakes with torturous screams filling the air. But it was quiet, blue, and it was snowing. And it got me thinking because in Endgame on Vormir, it is also snowing. Ish. I just made a parallel that in places of death, it tends to snow. Because Hell is, well, Hell, and Vormir is where people go to get the Soul Stone and ultimately die. I just really wanted to thought track Natasha in this different perspective with her knowledge that when snow comes, death will soon follow.

The first thing she notices when they reach the top is the mild disruption in her line of vision as she looks out over the edge of this mountain they have climbed. 

Clint pants beside her as Natasha reaches out a hand to catch the falling substance that had been obscuring her vision.

She looks down at her hand to see snowflakes, small and ghostly pale, melting as they hit the warm palm of her hand.

"It's snowing." Natasha says to Clint, pointing out the obvious. 

She turns to her teammate with her outstretched hand, holding the fast melting snow, and sees more snowflakes in Clint's hair, scattering themselves in his hair like dandruff. Reaching up a hand to her own hair to feel the snow in her hair and intertwined with her red-blonde braid, Natasha looks back around them to this eerily still, purple world that her and Clint stand at the top of.  
It's not cold, it's not icy, it is not wintery in the slightest. There should be no way that snow is falling on them in this moment, and yet it is.

"It's _snowing._ " Natasha repeats, this time with more confusion and emphasis on the last word.

"Yeah..." Clint says, joining Natasha in looking out over this purple watery desert. "It is."

Together, wordlessy, the two of them advance up to the head of the cliff they have climbed, which turns out to actually be a lot less natural than they had originally thought. They are not standing on mud, grass or any kind of frosted ground in the slightest. It's _metal_. Dark, rusted bronze, it is engraved with swirling, intricate patterns that almost cause Natasha to lose her footing on the ridges.

Despite this, as though waiting for something to happen, Natasha continues to stare out over this planet with Clint. 

It's so overwhelmingly stunning that it quite literally takes her breath away. She stands in silence with Clint as she tries to take in the scene around her.

A blazing orange sun in the distance, despite its powerful light, does nothing to change the deep purple hue that colours the landscape. Large, still expanses of water spread out over the land in front of them, reflecting the deceiving symmetry of the planet above them. Everything is dark, despite the orange sun and the flooding light around it. It rather surprises Natasha. She had expected the center of the universe to be a bit brighter. And more sunny.

Then, all of a sudden, a hundred things come back to her.

_"In places of death, it tends to snow."_

_"Where else am I going to get a view like this?"_

_"There are worse ways to go."_

_"A beautiful place to die."_

And before her destiny on this planet was even decided, it seemed Natasha already knew.

Now, when the snow falls on her, it sends chills down her spine. She had known the snow must have been here for some strange otherworldly reason. There was just no reason for it to snow in a climate, on a planet, like this. It made no sense. Until now. 

A sign. A cry. A smile.

And so, when the Red Skull arrives on their cliff in Vormir, and informs them of their mission, and the price they must pay to complete it, everything fits into place around Natasha with astounding clarity.

She was always meant to die.  
And somehow she had always known.

And the last thing that occurs to her as she dangles in the grasp of her best friend over the side of the cliff, is the snowfall, heavy landing on her. Snowflakes, stick to her face, her eyelashes, almost blinding her just like her first arrival on this place of death.

A painful, paralysing reminder that she always should have known, should have realised, the moment her life changed for the better.

A purpose to serve others all for a greater good far larger than she.

And it is the snow that catches her fall when she lands, and forms and gentle blanket over Natasha as she drifts from one world to the next.


End file.
